Tesla Stock Drops as Retail Investors Continue to Pile Into Shares

Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock was up 7% year to date and up 30% over the past 12 months. (Photo by SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• Tesla stock declined 5.4% to $407.52 in midday trading, making it the worst performer in the Nasdaq 100.
• Retail investors own approximately 41% of Tesla’s tradable stock, significantly higher than the 25% average for other Magnificent Seven companies.
• Retail shareholders purchased about $1.1 billion more in Tesla stock than they sold over the past week, continuing a year-to-date trend.

Tesla stock was down early Thursday, with the market. Despite recent declines, shares remain very popular with retail investors.

Shares of the electric vehicle maker were at $407.52, down $23.08, or 5.4%, in midday trading. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 1% and 0.6%, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite was off 1.8%. Tesla stock was the worst performer in the Nasdaq 100, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Coming into Thursday trading, Tesla stock was down 3.4%. It has fallen three times and risen once since the company’s Nov. 6 annual meeting, where CEO Elon Musk learned that shareholders voted in favor of his trillion-dollar 2025 pay award by a margin of roughly three-to-one.

Retail shareholders played a large role in the vote. A significant chunk of the EV maker’s stock is held by individuals, so-called retail investors, who own about 41% of Tesla stock available for trading, according to Bloomberg. For the rest of the Magnificent Seven, retail shareholders own an average of about 25% of the shares available for trading. The average level for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 5%.

Despite the post-meeting dip, JPMorgan reported in its “Retail Radar” report on Wednesday that retail shareholders have bought more Tesla stock than they’ve sold over the past week, by about $1.1 billion.

AI remains the big theme with retail investors. Nvidia and Tesla were the two most popular stocks for smaller investors, followed by Meta Platforms, AMD, CoreWeave , Oracle, and Apple .

All those stocks are part of the AI data center buildout. Tesla, of course, is working on physical AI applications such as self-driving taxis and humanoid robots.

Recent purchases by retail investors extend the year-to-date theme for smaller investors. Tesla and Nvidia have been two of the most popular retail stocks. Smaller investors have added roughly $20 billion in Nvidia shares and $15 billion in Tesla shares to their positions.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com